The balancing act: Exploring stigma, economic need and disclosure among male sex workers in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Abstract

In Vietnam, there is an emerging HIV epidemic among men who have sex with men (MSM). Male sex workers engage in high-risk sexual behaviours that make them particularly vulnerable to HIV infection. In 2010, 23 MSM in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) who recently received payment for sex with another man completed in-depth qualitative interviews exploring motivations for sex work, patterns of sex work disclosure and experiences of social stigma. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and translated into English and analysed using a qualitative descriptive approach. Low wages, unstable employment and family remittances were motivating factors for MSM in HCMC to sell sex. Participants described experiences of enacted and felt social stigma related to their involvement in sex work. In response, they utilised stigma management techniques aimed at concealment of involvement in sex work. Such strategies restricted sexual communication with non-paying sex partners and potentially limited their ability to seek social support from family and friends. Departing from decontextualized depictions of sex work disclosure, our findings describe how decisions to reveal involvement in sex work are shaped by social and structural factors such as social stigma, techniques to minimise exposure to stigma, economic imperatives and familial responsibilities.

Keywords:

• MSM
• sex work
• stigma
• Vietnam
• HIV

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a pilot grant from Harvard University Catalyst/The Harvard University Clinical and Translational Science Center (PIs: Colby and Mimiaga); NIH [grant number #1 UL1 RR 025758-02]; and financial contributions from participating institutions.